Army plans to award major EW-drone contract this year

The Army is planning to award a contract for MFEW Air Large, an electronic warfare pod that could be mounted on MQ-1C Gray Eagles.

As part of an Army plan to rebuild its electronic warfare capabilities, the service plans to award a major contract later this year that would bolster EW capabilities.

The contract is to support part of the Army’s Multi-Function Electronic Warfare program, which overall will provide brigade combat team commanders organic offensive electronic attack and support capabilities, which don’t currently exist.

Specifically, the contract award will be for MFEW Air Large, which will outfit electronic warfare pods used to jam and detect signals onto large unmanned aerial systems. This could include the Army’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle.

Ann Minniti, the program lead for MFEW Air at Army Program Executive Office-Intelligence, Electronic Warfare & Sensors, told C4ISRNET that an Army Requirements Oversight Council Memorandum in early January 2018 codified the capabilities for part of the program.

The Army, according to fiscal 2019 budget request, plans to spend $39.8 million on MFEW Air next year with a total spend of $195.8 million for the whole MFEW program across the next five years.

Similarly, the service had planned to spend $20.3 million last year as outlined by its FY18 budget documents released in May 2017.